Yellowhammer Times

Today, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) designated 20 counties in Alabama as primary natural disaster areas due to a recent drought. This announcement was made by Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Rick Pate. In addition to these primary counties, 18 more were listed as contiguous disaster counties.

"The drought affected over half of the counties in Alabama," said Commissioner Pate. He urged farmers to contact their local USDA offices for information on available funding.

The U.S. Drought Monitor indicated that these counties experienced significant drought conditions in 2025, with either D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional levels.

The designated primary counties are Autauga, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Dallas, Franklin, Greene, Hale, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Lowndes, Madison, Marengo, Morgan, Perry, Sumter, Washington, Wilcox and Winston. The contiguous counties include Baldwin, Bibb, Butler, Colbert, Coosa, Crenshaw, Cullman, Elmore, Jackson, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Pickens, Shelby,Tuscaloosa and Walker.

Counties previously meeting requirements under 7 CFR 759.5(a) may have already been designated as natural disaster areas for the current crop year.

A Secretarial disaster designation allows farm operators in both primary and contiguous counties to apply for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loan assistance if they meet eligibility criteria. Farmers have eight months from the date of the declaration on March 25th to apply for these loans. Each application is evaluated based on production losses and the operator's ability to repay.

Farmers seeking more information about program options or eligibility can visit https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-loan-programs. Local USDA Service Centers can be found at https://www.farmers.gov/working-with-us/service-center-locator.

Information from this article can be found here.